Background
I filed for ch7 bk in July 2018/discharged in October 2018. My total debt was < 50k. I had used credit cards to provide for me and my child while I put myself through school. I managed to keep up with my payments (no late payments at all) all the way through graduating with an advanced degree, but then my student loans came out of their grace periods and I could no longer afford to pay cc + student loans even with a near 6 figure income. I have never been delinquent on my student loans.
I owe ~175k federal student loans, which will be forgiven in 9 years because I qualify for and am on track to received PSLF. I have confirmation of this.
I initially owed >50k to Sallie Mae/Navient at 12%, but managed to refinance post ch7 bk with CommonBond at 6.25% for 7 years (with a cosigner)- I make extra payments and am on track to pay it back in ~3.5 years (down to 38k).
I burned the following banks/lenders:
BoA - 4500
Barclays - 3700
Capital One - 1400
Comenity/Caesars - 2170
Comenity/Virgin - 3000
Chase Freedom - 5000
Chase United - 6500
Chase Amazon - 6500
Citibank - Not sure exactly and don't see it on my credit reports for some reason, but it was under 3000
Syncb/Walmart - 1200
Target - 2300
Wells Fargo - 6850
I have been an avid lurker of these forums for only the last 2 or so months. So I began my rebuild with no guidance, and overall I am not displeased with where I am. I definitely wasted some inquiries on folks who were never going to be my friend, but what can you do?
Discovered Secured - 2000 deposit, opened Dec 2018 with 500 and made additional 500 dollar deposits when funds were available, hoping it will graduate, but expecting it to take longer with the ch7 being so recent. Never late, never over. Paid in full every 2 weeks when I get my paycheck. Used for all of my day to day expenses.
NY&Co Comenity - 300 CL, this predates my bankruptcy. I forgot I had it and they did not close it. It's helping my AAoA.
Credit One - 1000 CL, opened May 2019. Has $39 AF, so I plan to eventually cancel but I wanted to keep overall util low.
Merrick Bank - 1100 CL (doubles to 2200 automatically with on time payments) opened May 2019
Ollo - 2000 CL opened April 2019
DSRM Valero Card - 300 CL opened May 2019, gives me a good discount at the local gas station
Cap 1 Secured Card - 49 deposit / 200 limit, approved 8/2019
Target - 2000 CL, approved 8/2019
My husband also added me as AU on two of his oldest cards (25 years) with clean histories and 0 balance (I wish I had known about this earlier, it would have saved me some inquiries).
All of my accounts are paid in full every paycheck. So I do report some util, never more than 10% total. I do not pay before a specific date with respect to statements, or anything like that.
Questions
Getting ready to garden for 2 years aside from CLIs, I will need to purchase a car around 9/2021. The court did not let me reaffirm my autoloan, but I'm paying it/0 missed payments. When it is paid off I'm giving it to my kiddo. I'm hoping by then I am in a good place for a decent loan. My current scores from the $1 deal are: Experian 671, Equifax 692, TransUnion 658 -- not really sure why the TU is lagging. It shows me 9 months since negatives whereas the others show me 1 year 1 month (so I'm guessing it uses my discharge date and the others use my filing)?
1) I am interested in getting back in with Capital One, BoA, and Citi. Chase will be a longer term project, but I'm not optimistic that they will ever want to see my business again (and I certainly do not blame them). Does the amount you burned them for matter? I see that people here have burned one creditor for more than I burned in my entire BK. Does this matter/is it taken into account by the creditor?
2) I am considering snagging up a BoA secured card (if they'll approve me) before I set out to garden. Are there any confirmed reports that my CapOne and BoA secured cards will help me get back in with these banks? Citi website says you cannot apply for a secure card until 2 years post any bk activity, so they are currently off the table, but I would be interested to know about them too.
Before anyone lectures me about my previous debt. I was a single parent. The <50k got me food, gas, and essentials for me and my kid during the 11 years I put myself through school, during which time I never missed a single payment. I get that I blew it, but we needed to eat and I needed to get to the two jobs I had to pay our rent, and so it is what it is.
Thanks so much for any help and guidance. Wish I had started really researching things sooner, but at least I found this place eventually. Please let me know if any additional information would help with advice/etc. Happy to provide.
You can try Cap1's auto finance pre-qual site. Are far as credit cards. You have more than enough to rebuild. No more CC apps for now. Let them age at least a year before you make anymore moves. Time is your best friend for now.
For sure, I'm definitely planning to relax here for awhile. Mostly I was just curious if it matters how much you burned a creditor for and if getting a secured card with banks you burned could help at all with getting back in. Thanks for the advice!
The amount doesnt really matter. Once burned. Chase, Citi, BoA, WF will be until the BK falls off your reports and then some. YMMV. If you didnt burn AMEX. 5yrs and 1 month post BK is your best chance out of all the big banks.
Great, thank you.